Quinn Endorses De Blasio, Citing Party Unity

Christine Quinn endorses Bill de Blasio for mayor on the steps of City Hall Tuesday.

By John Surico

A week after her loss in the Democratic primary, City Council Speaker and former mayoral candidate Christine Quinn endorsed her past rival, public advocate Bill de Blasio, for mayor.

“Bill and I, and so many Democrats around the city and on these steps, share the same progressive values,” Ms. Quinn said at the event on the steps of City Hall. “We believe this city is the greatest in the world. We believe that working together, the best days of this city are ahead of us, not behind us… I ask each and every one of you in joining me in supporting Bill.”

Citing jobs, affordable housing, and wages during the event, Ms. Quinn focused on issues that dominated the Democratic primary as the sole reasons why “we need a Democrat to do that” after 20 years of Republican rule in City Hall.

On Monday, former comptroller William C. Thompson, alongside Governor Andrew Cuomo, conceded to de Blasio before a runoff was possible; there, party unity was a theme throughout elected officials’ speeches. Tuesday, once again, the Democratic fervor was in the air.

“We, as New Yorkers and Democrats – one of the proudest traditions in America, for believing in positive, activist, meaningful government to improve people’s’ everyday lives, that philosophy that we all grew up with,” Mr. de Blasio declared. “I’m so grateful to stand here today with good friends, many who have struggled for change.”

After accepting the endorsement, Mr. de Blasio noted his working history with Ms. Quinn, from the Dinkins administration in the early 1990s to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate run. He also said he was “deeply appreciative” of her defending his family in the face of Mayor Bloomberg’s remarks the Mr. de Blasio is running a “racist” campaign in his interview with New York Magazine last week.

The rivalry between Ms. Quinn and Mr.de Blasio on the campaign trail involved some of the more accusatory language this election year. In the cycle’s final days, Mr. de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” message was renamed by the Quinn campaign as a “tale of two de Blasios,” arguing that the public advocate had flipped his position on term limits and accepted donations from his list of the city’s worst landlords.

But the animosity appeared to dissolve Tuesday as Ms. Quinn ceded her support over to the Democratic candidate for mayor: When asked about her repeated past statement that New Yorkers should not trust Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Quinn said she now “trusts Bill” and that her supporters should do the same.

In the distance, the drum circles from Occupy Wall Street’s second anniversary in Zuccotti Park could be heard by reporters, and, at one point, the protesters’ parade passed City Hall during the endorsement. When asked about his support early on for the movement, Mr. de Blasio told reporters that his core message parallels Occupy by “emphasizing and talking about the issues of the campaign,” particularly income inequality and corporate payoffs. The Democratic candidate had no publicly scheduled plans after the conference to visit the protest site in lower Manhattan.

Corrections & amplifications: Ms. Quinn and Mr. de Blasio worked together in the Dinkins’ administration in the early 1990s. An earlier version of this article said the late 1980s.